University of Hannover
speciality: International Relations

As an international student with previous academic experience abroad at both undergraduate and graduate level, including studies in the United States and Norway, I believe I can evaluate my experience at Leibniz Universität Hannover with a fairly solid basis for comparison. Unfortunately, from an academic and organizational perspective, my experience was overall disappointing.

The main issue was not simply cultural adaptation or the normal difficulties of studying abroad, but rather the university’s overall academic management and its approach toward international students. Compared to other international institutions I attended, I found the level of organization significantly weaker and often frustrating.

Course management was one of the most problematic aspects of the experience. Information regarding classes, schedules, requirements, examination formats, and course compatibility was often unclear, inconsistent, or communicated too late. As an incoming student, this created constant uncertainty and made it unnecessarily difficult to build a coherent academic plan.

I was also surprised by the poor alignment between the courses advertised to exchange students and the actual reality once the semester started. Several courses that appeared suitable for international students later proved difficult to access due to language barriers, unclear expectations, limited support, or structures that were evidently designed primarily for local students without considering the needs of incoming students.

From an academic standpoint, I also found the teaching experience uneven in quality. While there were some positive exceptions, several courses lacked clarity, structure, and engagement compared to what I experienced at other universities abroad. In some cases, professors appeared uninterested in interacting with international students or showed little flexibility regarding the additional challenges faced by exchange students.

The International Office was another major weakness of the experience. Communication was often slow, vague, and at times unhelpful. Instead of facilitating the academic integration of international students, the administrative process frequently felt unnecessarily bureaucratic and disorganized.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect was the overall feeling that international students were treated more as temporary visitors than as students whose academic experience genuinely mattered. Beyond superficial welcome initiatives, there seemed to be limited institutional effort to ensure proper academic integration, guidance, or support throughout the semester.

Having studied in different international academic environments before arriving in Hannover, I do not think these problems can simply be dismissed as “normal exchange difficulties.” In my opinion, they reflect deeper organizational and academic shortcomings that significantly affected the quality of the experience.

While living abroad is always valuable on a personal level, academically this was by far the weakest international university experience I have had so far.